Reading+Strategies

=At Home Reading Strategies=

Reading at home is important for 5th graders. Some students struggle with comprehending what they've read, and some students need to be challenged in their reading. The following strategies are helpful for both struggling and accomplished readers. Working with students at home is important to nurture academic and emotional skills. 5th graders are not too old to read with! Encourage you child to:
 * Use context clues (Does anything in the sentence or paragraph help you understand that word? What other words are similar?


 * Re-tell and summarize (Tell me about what you've just read? What does that mean in your own words?


 * Employ schema (prior knowledge), What do you already know about ? How is that like what you know about ? How do you know?


 * Make predictions about "what happens next" (What do you think will happen next? How do you think will get out of trouble?


 * Take notes or highlight important information (What is the most important thing to know about what wolves eat? What is the main idea of this paragraph?


 * Ask questions about content and vocabulary


 * Discuss a TV show or movie that you're watching. Many "story skills" or "summarizing skills" transfer from TV and movies into reading. Practice predicting, making connections, describing characters, making inferences and describing the mood (joyful, suspenseful, eery, angry) of a TV show or movie.


 * Draw pictures, maps, and charts to illustrate what is read.